Give and Take
by DannyPhanto fan
Summary: The Aftermath of "Forge of Creation"
1. Chapter 1

**Give and Take**

**Disclaimer**_**: I don't own Ben 10 and/or Ben 10: Alien Force and/or Ben 10: Ultimate Alien and/or any and/or all concepts and/or characters. They are copyrighted to Man of Action and Cartoon Network Studios. I am a mere Fanfiction author. With far too much time on her hands and no social life.**_

**Rated:**_** T**_

**Author's Note: Um, okay this is a response to "Forge of Creation" and was written while under duress by distress so if it's not up to par with my usual quality I'm sorry.**

**Part One: Assuring**

The doorbell rang, making Mr. Yamamoto stumble to it, rubbing his eyes.

"Sorry Sir." A green blur sped past him and he heard tennis shoes hitting the stairs and his daughter's door open and close.

"Ben?" Julie yawned, seeing her boyfriend enter her room. He grabbed her, hugging her to him tightly.

"Ben, what happened?" she demanded, pushing him away. He seemed to have aged a good ten years and his eyes seemed haunted. And he was soaked to the bone.

She gasped, horrified, covering her mouth with her hand, "Gwen?"

"No," he laughed a hollow laugh, "no. Though that would have been merciful…"

Her mind jumped to his dark comrade.

"He's not dead," he said as he saw comprehension on her face, "not really…it's complicated…"

He collapsed to her bed, putting his head in his hands, "It's all my fault Jules, all my fault…"

"No, no it's not…" she sat beside him.

"I-I've never told you how we first met him have I?" he looked up at her.

"No…"

He inhaled raggedly, "It was six years ago, my first summer with the Watch, the original one. We were on a cross country vacation with Grandpa, me and Gwen; god we couldn't stand each other…and we made a stop in New York City, for a Sumo Slammers game release…"


	2. Chapter 2

**Part Two: Gaia's Fury, Personal Pain**

It had started to rain as soon as they had returned to Bellwood, the clouds collecting as she stumbled to her room. She locked the door with magic. The first flash of lightening coincided with her first sob. The first roll of thunder with the shattering of ceramic.

She had thrown her favorite, her handmade flower pot against the wall. She wanted to make things suffer; she wanted to inflict as much damage as had been done to her. She grabbed a picture frame, with a photo of her with a new children's wing at the local hospital tha she had convinced him to finance the construction of in it, and threw it against the wall. The storm picked up with her rage, the lightening becoming more frequent and more powerful.

The last straw was when she had grabbed a picture of the two of them. The glass broken and the metal bent she pulled the photo from the debris and held it to her heart. She fell to her knees, sobbing. It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair.

What had he done that had been so wrong as to deserve this sort of karmic retribution? (What had she missed; she should have been able to stop this.)

Gale force winds picked up, howling their fury in tandem with her heartbroken cries. The lights flickered and the bulbs shattered as she hit a high-pitch wail, sparks sputtering and flying. Another wail, higher this time, and the power to the entire city cut out as softball sized hail began forming and falling.

She broke; she went limp, her skin coming undone at invisible seams and falling to the ground empty, useless.

The purple being still felt her human grief; it seemed to be magnified in this form. Her powers were tied to her emotions. She wanted people to suffer; she wanted people to quake in terror. A good man was lost that day and nobody but she mourned. Even Ben… he always came out on top, other people suffered because of him and yet he was rewarded again and again. Her eyes narrowed. She would make him suffer, make him feel her loss. He would suffer and learn his lesson. He had a girlfriend…perfect.

She smiled with malicious glee. Ben would suffer greatly.

She teleported, arriving in Julie's room.


	3. Chapter 3

**Part Three: A Showdown **

"Gwen!" Ben stood up, pushing Julie to be behind him. Gwen smacked him aside, sending him into a wall. She then fisted her hand and Julie began struggling against whatever was crushing her windpipe. She went to her knees. "Plea—" Julie pled, beginning to feel lightheaded.

"_**It is nothing personal Julie Yamamoto.**_" Gwen intoned. "_**Benjamin Tennyson has caused far too much pain and needs to learn his lesson**_."

"Gwen don't do this!" Ben shouted.

She did not pause in strangling the human girl as she immobilized the mighty hero, telling him, "_**You cost me the man I love, I am merely taking an equal retribution. Remember Benjamin Tennyson it is your fault she dies today. You were not strong enough to stop me, you were helplessly trapped and forced to watch as she died. You were the cause of her death.**_"

Julie had long since gone limp, unconscious, but she held on to life still. Her heart still beat, weakly, and so Gwen tightened her hold, determined to snuff out the flame of life.

Ship leapt in in order to save his mistress but was zapped. He fell, drained of the energy needed to turn on.

"Gwen!" Ben screamed, "Kevin's still alive! There's still a chance-!"

And then suddenly a large creature crashed through the roof, landing in a crouch, "Let her go Gwen." He growled, "This's between you an' me, nobody else."

She let go of Julie, the girl's heart still beating, and covered her with a manna shield. Gwen turned to face him, "_**You dare order an Anodite around? You who abandoned me for your madness and power? You, an insignificant solid creature?**_"

"Yeah, yeah I do."

She snapped; grabbing him by Jet-ray's horn and beginning to whirl like a discs thrower, and flung him away once she hit maximum velocity. He flew from the house, taking out the southern wall of Julie's room, and landed in La Soledad desert. Gwen followed, starting to blast him into the dirt.

"_**I gave you everything I have, everything I am and this is how you repay me!**_" she screamed, the ground beginning to quake.

He stopped moving; she landed.

He started laughing, getting up, "That's all you have? I thought you love me Gwen?" She attempted to power up but he was too fast, having her pinned to the ground, "You never cared about me, I was just a ride and dumb muscle to you!"

Suddenly she had flipped him over her head and straddled his chest, punching him as she screamed, (with each punch thunder and lightening happened), "_**Betrayer! Traitor! Filth! I trusted you! I trusted you when I should have not—**_"

He flipped over, "That's right, I'm a freak; that's why you traded up to Sparklyshit; you love me so so much that you left me as soon as you—"

She flipped them again, continuing to strike him, "Caroline! You kissed Charmcaster at your first chance! Hell you love your car more than me!" she was still an Anodite but was now speaking with her human voice, "I nearly killed myself trying to find a cure and you were playing tonsil hockey with that whore!" she froze, getting off him, walking away.


	4. Chapter 4

**Part Four: Cure For A Broken Heart**

He heard her sobbing.

"Why do you pretend to care?" he demanded.

She turned, her human eyes now in her purple body, "I never pretended I cared Kevin, I love you; obviously you don't feel the same."

"Of course I do!" he roared, and then he became quiet, "Of course I do, but it ain't enough is it? I'm not good enough and I never will be…"

"So you're giving up? You're not going to even try?" she demanded back, "Because supposedly you're not good enough for me you're going to become a criminal again? You were right. You are a loser. A loser, a quitter. You aren't good enough for me. Because you won't trust me." A flash illuminated her form through the stinging rain.

He made to grab her arm, enraged that she had the audacity to tell him that to his face, just as she had hoped. She, like him, could absorb energy. Manna specifically but then again everything was made of manna. She spun around and gripped his throat, lifting him off the ground with her inhuman strength. Her eyes glowed brightly, entrancing him as she began to siphon off the powers that were corrupting his mind, his heart.

The extra limbs began to shrink, being pulled back into his body. He began to shrink, softening and pinkening.

She dropped the human before going to her knees. The powers she had taken from him hurt; she vomited. Power poisoning her system her body tried to purge itself. As she vomited patches of pink human skin were forming like scales on her Anodite form, linking together and then smoothing out. They both were as nude as the day they were born.

He, having fallen into unconsciousness as she worked, woke up. His head was pounding, his stomach turning and his limbs felt like lead. He heard her retching. Great, she was made physically ill by his grotesque appearance.

He sat up, seeing his human legs. He was human again. He looked to her, seeing her still puking.

Immediately he found a stone and absorbed it, punching into the ground to find a decent chunk of limestone. He tried to stand up but found he couldn't and so crawled to her, handing her the limestone. She understood and stored the taken powers in it. The retching stopped as the transfer was completed.

The storm was lessening, the rain slowing to a soft shower.

She reached out to touch his face.

He did the same, cradling hers as he tried to apologize.

She stopped him with a kiss, whispering, "You are going into psychological therapy. We are going into psychological therapy. We obviously need to…"

He nodded, thankful she was willing to give him yet another chance.

The rain stopped and the clouds began to thin, sun shining weakly through them.

It would be a long road but they had hope.


	5. Chapter 5

**Part Five: Rational Vs Emotional**

Ben was on a warpath; he had managed to revive Julie but he shouldn't've had to.

"Ben," she spoke, "calm down."

"Calm down?" he shouted, "Calm down! She nearly killed you!"

"She's in pain! You mean you can't feel it?" she looked at him with disbelief.

"Feel what?" he spun to her.

"They're connected, like really connected."

"Who are?"

"Gwen and Kevin; there's something between them…even I can feel it…like pure electricity around them."

"Well Grandma did say they had similar sparks to her and Grandpa…" he sat down beside her.

"What if they're connected, really connected like at soul level…if anything comes between them…"

"They would react badly."

"Understatement."

He looked up, suddenly realizing, "Hey it's stopped raining!"

"Why does that matter?"

"Gwen, she's like as powerful as a goddess and her powers are tied to her emotions. She was making it storm…"

"So it's sunny why then?"

"She's either happy or dead…"

They both paled.

"Um," Julie gulped, "Um, Ben, how likely is it that Kevin has turned back to normal and they've kissed and made up?"

He gulped, "As likely as I'm to have a tea party with Vilgax."

"Um, so, um she's dead?"

"Yeah, most probably…"

"And if she's dead Kevin has no reason to get better does he?"

"No."

"And if that never happens we're screwed aren't we because he'll come after you through me like she did?"

"Pretty much…"

"Um, does he just kill his victims or does he torture?"

"Tortures…"

"Good to know what's gonna happen…should we go look for her body?"

"Yeah—"

"Ben, come in Ben," his badge came to life, "I need you to stop by my place and pick up an outfit and then head to Kevin's and get an outfit for him. Please?"

"Wait, Kevin?" he fished out his badge and repeated his question, "Kevin?"

"Yeah, he's back." Gwen's voice was happy, content with life.

Ben and Julie gave sighs of relief, smiling, "Copy that Gwen, I'm on my way…"

Things were going to be bumpy but they would all get through it together.

_**THE END**_


End file.
